Enjoy a happy retirement with supported living
Retirement gives you the chance to focus on your passions and do the things you want to do. However, it can also be unsettling as your routines change and you try to find new ways to spend your days. It’s a time when we all could do with a bit of support and inspiration to create a happy and fulfilling retirement.
We spoke to the remarkable ladies of McCarthy & Stone’s Ryland Place Retirement Living PLUS supported living development in Edgbaston - an OBE Professor, a star of stage and screen, a former Olympian and a gardening expert to get their insight into living well in retirement.
Discover 5 tips for living well in retirement and take inspiration from these wonderful women.
5 ways to make the most of retirement
Aside from planning where to live and getting your finances ready for retirement, here are 5 tips to help you to enjoy this exciting time of life.
1. Set new routines
While you’ll no longer be heading off to work, creating a routine is a great way to help you feel like you’re making the most of every day. It’s a good idea to have meals at the same time daily and structure your time around regular activities. For example, volunteering for a worthy cause, bowling at the local club or looking after your grandchildren.
An example of a weekly routine:
- Mondays - shopping and appointments
- Tuesdays - volunteering at a charity shop
- Wednesdays - looking after grandchildren
- Thursdays - lunch with friends and book club
- Fridays - aqua aerobics and ‘Fish and Chip Fry-day’
- Saturdays - day out with friends or family
- Sunday - Sunday lunch, gardening and a movie
McCarthy & Stone communities offer a full calendar of (optional) social activities for seniors to enjoy, but you can also take time for yourself to enjoy quiet time at home whenever you want to.
2. Prioritise your wellbeing
It’s crucial to take good care of your health and wellbeing, so you’ll have the energy to enjoy a long and happy retirement.
- Attending health checks and regular appointments with your doctor, dentist, and optician will keep you on top of - or prevent - health issues.
- Maintaining an active lifestyle and keeping fit in retirement benefits your physical wellbeing, whether you enjoy country walks or a weekly yoga class.
- Our mental health is just as important as physical health.
o Check in with yourself about how you’re feeling.
o Being sociable and active can rally help give mental health a boost.
o Talk through any challenges with a good friend and a cup of tea - or start a new retirement hobby.
One of the best things about retirement is you have the flexibility and freedom to try new things and find what makes you happy.
3. Take on challenges and adventures
Retirement is the perfect time to say ‘yes’ to things you hadn’t felt able to in the past. You could take on adrenaline-pumping adventures like skydiving, challenging hikes, wild swimming or surfing. Or if, you prefer less intense activities try cruises, cooking, or set yourself a challenge like visiting every National Park in the UK.
4. Build a strong social life
Meeting new people and staying social during retirement is more important than you might think. It allows you to create relationships that give more meaning to life. And it’s never too late to make new connections, whether it be with neighbours, locals, or people from a hobby group. The more you put yourself out there, the more you’ll meet people from all walks of life and make friendships that’ll last a lifetime.
Many of us struggle with isolation in our later years, which is what makes retirement developments that offer communal living for over 60s and 70s ideal. These communities encourage socialisation, with shared spaces for clubs and events, while you still have the privacy of your own home to retreat to when it’s time to call it a night.
You can also meet people in your local community:
- At sports or hobby clubs
- While volunteering
- At fitness groups
- Community centres and libraries
- Walking your dog
5. Focus on what matters to you
Retirement is a good time to look at what’s important to you. Perhaps there are some hobbies that had to take a backseat over the years, skills that you haven’t been able to nurture or places you haven’t had a chance to visit yet. Retirement is the perfect opportunity to commit to the things you love. Here are some ideas:
- Nurture existing hobbies or start new ones
- Spend more time with your family
- Learn something new or gain a qualification
- Start a small business
- Travel abroad
Our retirees lead the way by living life to the full
Breaking glass ceilings across academia, sport, the stage, and gardening are Professor Margaret Clark OBE, Olympian and world-record holder Rosemary Chrimes, actor Anita Brown, and gardener Janet Cartwright. These inspiring ladies explain they’ve no intention of slowing down any time soon.
Keep your mind sharp like Margaret
Now in her late 90s, Professor Margaret Clark, has an OBE for services to early childhood education, an honorary life membership of the United Kingdom Literacy Association, over 30 publishing credits and two prizes awarded in her name each year at the University of Strathclyde.
Margaret explains, “I studied for my degree in Education and Psychology part time while teaching in a primary school. I was invited to join the Psychology Department at the University of Strathclyde in 1966 and was the only woman professor and head of department at the University of Birmingham. I am still working either on research, editing books or writing articles on education policy and I am still consulted by current students.”
She continues her intellectual pursuits to this day, “I published my first book in 1979 about my PHD which explored left-handedness and then never stopped! I’m always in the middle of a paper or article and even during lockdown, I was publishing a research report. I’ve been a visiting Professor at Newman University for 20 years and have even turned my second bedroom here at Ryland Place into my study. It came in very handy during COVID too, as I could keep in touch with my colleagues and keep working.”
Stay fit like Rosemary
Rosemary enjoyed an extremely successful athletics career, having represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games and the UK in the Olympics at the discus. At the time, all athletes were amateurs - so as well as being a successful athlete, she worked full time in education.
In Rosemary’s words, becoming an athlete happened by accident: “My older sister married a vet, who just happened to be a discus thrower. I’d always been a very lively and athletic person, and he was the one who told me to go to university and join the discus team, so I did. The next thing you know I’m winning gold at the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1970!“
“I also got to experience representing the United Kingdom at the Olympics in 1972 when the games were in Munich. Unfortunately, it was a tragic Games and one that no one will forget, but the experience of being part of an Olympic team is one I’ll always remember.”
That wasn’t the end of Rosemary’s sporting journey, though, as she went on to win silver at the Christchurch Commonwealth Games in 1974. Once she retired, she turned to coaching and began managing up-and-coming junior stars. Alongside her coaching, Rosemary also took part in Masters Athletics, which pitted the more experienced athletes against each other.
Rosemary says, “I didn’t know about Masters Athletics until I had retired and I had such great fun with it. I’d turn up to events and there would be people competing that I was competing against 20 years ago, it always made me feel nostalgic. I still keep up with the athletics now, and love to see some of those I’ve trained doing so well.”
Enjoy the arts like Anita
Born in Birmingham, actor Anita attended a drama school in Edgbaston just down the road from where she now lives at Ryland Place.
“I attended drama school through a grant as it was extremely expensive, and we couldn’t afford it. I made some fantastic friends including Nicol Williamson, who I was in classes with. We were the only two there on grants, everyone else came from rich families that paid for them to be there, but we knew we were the best ones there!
“Lucky for me I was also able to dance and model, so these also formed part of my early career. One of the funniest jobs I ever did was a bathing suit commercial, they used my photo all the way up the side of an escalator on the underground, so when my mother came to visit me, I don’t think she was best pleased, but we had a good laugh about it.”
Anita is well travelled, having done a year with dance troops over in Beirut in the late 50s. She also featured in the 1957 movie Saint Joan directed by Otto Preminger and several episodes of Crossroads. She told us, “I’ve had the pleasure of working with the likes of Amanda Barry and Barbara Windsor, as well as a few drinks with Frank Sinatra when me and my friend were in a bar in London.”
Now that Anita has settled into her retirement, she continues to pursue her creative passions: “I’ve never lost my love for the arts and can always be found watching a film, enjoying a play, or keeping up with the news from the arts world. I don’t think that is something that will ever go away!”
Get outdoors like Janet
Janet Cartwright has always been passionate about gardening, although it was a journey into that profession that made her turn away from doing the thing that she loved.
I’ve loved gardening for as long as I can remember. In those days, though, it was regarded as strange to do a job that was seen as a ‘man’s job’. So, when I joined the Parks Department at Smethwick Council, I was actually the first ever female to take on the role!
“However, once I started, it soon became apparent that women were not treated the same as men. The male apprentices were earning more money than me and I was full-time. I knew that I wasn’t getting what I deserved, so I taught swimming for 26 years, as they were paying their women employees the same wage as the men.”
Now that she has the time to dedicate to her passions, Janet is putting her gardening expertise to use to make homeowners at Ryland Place feel more at home. She works alongside the development’s professional gardeners to put her own stamp on the communal gardens.
“When more people started to come to the development, we had a small group chat and decided that the gardens needed some colour, so I took it upon myself to start planting some bulbs and bring some life to the gardens. The garden has things like daffodils and snowdrops now that will stay there for the foreseeable and just make everyone a little bit happier when they’re outside.”
Start living retirement to the full
Ryland Place couldn’t have been a more fitting choice for these inspirational women. The development was named in honour of Louisa Ryland, Birmingham’s major benefactor and philanthropist, who donated several large areas of land to the city, including Canon Hill Park and Small Heath Park, and made significant donations to the Birmingham School of Art, The Birmingham & Midlands Institute, and multiple hospitals.
The women have formed a fast friendship at the development, along with many other people in the community. Margaret told us, “Ryland Place has many residents who have led fascinating lives, some of whom enjoy living life to the full. For example, Rosemary brought her baby grand piano with her when she moved in and now five of us are having piano lessons. There’s such a great community here, and it’s lovely to be surrounded by like-minded people.”
McCarthy & Stone retirement communities have a choice of living styles to make your life easier so you can focus on doing the things you love. Our Retirement Living developments for the over 60s provide a blend of independent and supported living services, while our Retirement Living PLUS developments for the over 70s offer assisted living support when you need it.
Discover McCarthy & Stone developments in popular locations across the UK, including Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Hampshire among many more.
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